The Wolf In The Boardroom
827 Words
[PARK SEO-YEON]
The armored Maybach sliced through the morning traffic of Gangnam like a shark through a school of minnows.
Inside the silent cabin, the tension was thick enough to choke on.
I sat stiffly, reviewing the hostile acquisition data on my tablet. The board meeting was going to be a bloodbath. The failed kidnapping attempt in the alley—orchestrated by someone on my own board, I was sure of it—had spooked the market. My stock was bleeding.
I glanced across the limousine.
Jin-Woo sat perfectly still, staring out the window. The expensive Italian suit I bought him didn't make him look civilized. It just made him look like a well-dressed executioner. The jacket strained across his back muscles; his thighs filled the tailored trousers.
He was cleaning his fingernails with a ridiculously large, matte-black combat knife.
Schwing. Scrape.
"Mr. Kang," I snapped, my nerves fraying. "Put that away. We are going to Park Corporation headquarters, not a knife fight in a favela."
He didn't look up. "Just cleaning up, Boss."
"And try not to look so... murder-y. We have international shareholders."
He finally turned his dead, black eyes onto me. "You didn't hire me to look nice, Princess. You hired me because people are trying to put you in a van."
I hated that he was right.
"Today's threat isn't physical," I said, trying to inject ice into my voice. "It's Director Han. He's an arrogant dinosaur who thinks women belong in the kitchen, not the CEO’s office. He’ll try to intimidate me before the meeting. It’s psychological warfare."
Jin-Woo slipped the giant knife somewhere inside his suit jacket in a blink. It vanished without a trace.
"Psychological warfare," he repeated, sounding almost amused. "Cute."
[KANG JIN-WOO]
The lobby of Park Corporation headquarters smelled of floor wax, expensive coffee, and fear.
It was a massive atrium of glass and steel. Tactical nightmare. Too many sightlines, too many reflective surfaces, too many entry points.
Hundreds of employees in identikit suits scurried around like ants, clutching coffees, terrified of being late.
When Seo-Yeon walked in, the noise level dropped by half. It was like Moses parting the Red Sea. They didn't just respect her; they feared her.
Good. Fear is a type of security.
I walked half a step behind her and to the left, my standard shadow position. My eyes scanned the mezzanine level. Clear. The coffee stand. Clear.
Then, a man stepped out from a gaggle of executives near the private elevators.
[Target Aquired: Male. Mid-50s. Overweight. Expensive suit, cheap cologne. Smells like arrogance.]
Director Han. The "dinosaur."
He stepped directly into Seo-Yeon’s path, blocking her access to the elevators. A power move.
He completely ignored me. To men like him, the help was invisible.
"Seo-Yeon-ah," Han boomed, using an overly familiar, condescending tone. He smiled, showing too many teeth. "You look tired, darling. Are the big boys keeping you up at night? Maybe you should let the adults handle this merger today."
Seo-Yeon stopped. Her posture remained perfect, but I saw her hand clench at her side, her knuckles turning white.
I smelled the shift in her pheromones. Anger. Humiliation. The inner monster was scratching at the door.
"Director Han," she said coldly. "Get out of my way. The board is waiting."
She tried to step around him.
Han moved. He reached out and grabbed her upper arm.
It wasn't a friendly squeeze. His fingers dug into her bicep. It was a physical assertion of dominance, meant to hold her in place, to make her feel small in the middle of her own lobby.
"Now listen here, little girl—"
[Protocol Violated: Physical contact with client initiated by hostile entity.]
I didn't think. I didn't need to.
I flowed into the space between them.
My left hand clamped onto Han’s wrist, the one holding her arm.
I didn't break it. Breaking it would cause a scene, police reports, paperwork. I hated paperwork.
Instead, my thumb found the pressure point just below his wrist joint. The radial nerve cluster.
I squeezed. Just a little.
Han gasped. His eyes bulged out of his head. His knees buckled instantly, and he dropped to the polished marble floor, whimpering like a kicked puppy. He looked up at me, confused, in agony, unable to understand how a light touch had paralyzed his entire arm with fire.
The entire lobby froze. You could hear a pin drop.
I leaned down, bringing my face inches from his sweating forehead. I let the boredom drop from my eyes, revealing the abyss underneath. I let him feel the weight of the air pressing down on him.
"You're wrinkling her blazer," I whispered. Only he could hear me. "Let go."
His hand sprang open like it had touched a hot stove.
I stood up and stepped back to my position, smoothing the lapels of my slightly-too-tight suit.
"Shall we, Boss?" I said to Seo-Yeon. "Don't want to keep the adults waiting."
- Writer
